New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-26
PROTECTION AND SOUTHERN FARMS.

| Southern prosperity enrages Southern free
trade fanatics. The Louisville Courier Journal
has been made very unhappy by the develop.
ment of industry at the South, and by the dis
position of many of its friends to attribute this
marvellous progress to the true cause, the
systematic and unvarying defence Of American
industry by the Republican tariff which Demo-
Gratis have failed thus far to break down. TIC
| Courier-JOunal thereupOn tries to show that
| Southern farmers have been brought to the
verge Of poverty by protection. 1t claims that
they get less money for their crops than they
received in 1873. How many readers of that
paper are ignorant that the dollar in 1873 was
not q gold dollar, but was worth less than the
money in which farmers are now paidf How
many think so little that they fail to see the
dishonesty Of a comparison which ignores the
change in the value of money by which prices
are measured
In another way The Baltimore Manufacturers
Record has answered the free-trade fanatic
most effectively. The CourierJOurndl had pre-
tended that there had been no reduction since
1873 IN the prices of things purchased by the
farmers, and had asked, d" Are they getting their
iron and steel wares any cheaper, their ploughs,
axes, nails, drugs clothing, etc.f Any man
among them may answer" The Manufacturers
Record thereupon aillrms that this is deliber-
ate misstatement 1t quotes the Baltimore
prices OF fifty-fye manufactured articles, jan
uary 10, 1873, and January Ii, 1887, showing
a remarkable decline IN The prices of cloths of
various kinds of metals and metal products of
machinery, iron and steel. of coffee, sugar, mo-
lasses and syrups. of lumber and shingles, of
-four, soap, starch, oil and canned goods. The
cost of all the articles quoted in 1878 was
1878 10, and in 1887 1t was only $275 90, a
decline of nearly 60 per cent. This fixes
upon The Courier-JOWndl responsibility for an
assertion shown to be wildly false. The record
contrasts the fall in cotton, which was IS per
cent according to The Couricr-JoWndi. with the
fall in iron and steel wares and other products
consumed by the farmer, which was 1913 per
cent. showing that he is now much better off
than before the decline in prices.
This argument is conclusive. and yet II
leaves ont OF sight the greatest of all the bless
ings which protection confers upon the farmer,
whether South or North. What il farm land
worth now. in the ncighborhood Of Birmng-
ham. Alabama. and what was 1t worth in 1873
Every one knows that there has been great
advance that farms are to-day worth more in
gold than they were worth in depreciat-
ed paper fourteen years ago, not only at that
point, but wherever manufacturing and mining
industries have been developed within that
period. Certainly 1t would be within bounds
TO say that farms within reach of such new
centres of industry have on the whole more
than doubled IN value. All know the reason
he farmer Is helped far more by the local mar
ket near him, in which he can sell the minor
products In great varicty-thc vegetables and
fruits, the poultry and eggs, the milk and
dairy products. the pigs and calveS-than by
any change III the markets for the great staples
of commerce. Depend. mt upon cotton alone,
or upon wheat alone, the farmer is ut the mercy
of bad season or a depressed market. But
when he can sell ut good prices for cash, and
near his hom', either of many products OF the
farm, he becomes in measure independent
alike of bad seasons and of bad markets, of
transportation charges, mIddlemcn and mo-
nOpolists. The farmers near the new centres of
industry have rs a rule grown rich. If their
farms have doubled in market value, 1t is only
because their opportunities TO make money by
farming have been more than doubled by the
addition of home market for all farm prod
ucts.